Using feathers and silver squiggles, Bitting created the "Captain’s Table" herself for the les Femmes ball Friday at Diamond Jack’s Casino & Resort. Bitting’s place card was there and she received guests and krewe members. And so many gifts that hubby Don Bitting loaded them up in a gigantic plastic tub at the end of the evening, but even that wasn’t big enough.

(Gifts are a major Mardi Gras tradition. Royals and captains buy presents for each other and for all those they invite to sit at their tables, who, in turn, return the favor. Others just give to pay court.)

Over at Shreveport Convention Center, where Krewe of Justinian had its ball the same night, Co-Captain Steve Glassell and wife Berry centered their table with an elegant spray of orchids by Cathy Zahn, while King Jim Hill’s red, white and blue motif multiple tabletops were planned by wife Sandy Hill and Marc Marcussen.

But the table that drew attention was the 20-footer created of bamboo and tropical flowers.

Glen Roddy did it at the behest of church friend Carolyn Pierce. "He asked me if there were height requirements and I said, ‘No,’" said Pierce, there with hubby Marshall Pierce.

Thinking it might be five feet, she, like all the other table attendees, was stunned to find a towering centerpiece that some dubbed "The Sequoia." Sharing it with them: the Gene Brysons, John Fraziers, Ted Castens and Neil Erwin.